The Hackenblog

“A group of researchers from several universities recently published a report on the attitudes and beliefs of employed men, which shows that those with wives who did not work outside the home or who worked part-time were more likely than those with wives who worked to: (1) have an unfavorable view about women in the workplace; (2)think workplaces run less smoothly with more women; (3) view workplaces with female leaders as less desirable; and (4) conside female candidates for promotion to be less qualified than comparable male colleagues.

~snip~

“I saw this in my own research for Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law. Many of the women partners I interviewed described a lack of support and sponsorship from key men in their firms. Several talked to male colleagues who admitted that the success of married women as equity partners invalidated the choices they and their wives had made about how to divide the responsibilities of work and family.”
Are Women Held Back by Colleagues’ Wives?, by Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Harvard Business Review, May 16, 2012

Freaking charming. Go read the whole thing. Take some Dramamine first.

I think marriage equality will help some of this mess. Or we just have to wait for an entire generation to die off so a better world can be build upon their pulverized bones. Both of these are fine with me. But, hooray! for this comment:

“The same holds true for single mothers. The perception that a woman can raise and support a family on her own can rankle both men and women colleagues, even if they don’t recognize why.”

There should be more recognition of successful single/divorced/widowed/dumped/whatever mothers. Not just the famous Hollywood ones, but all of them. Anyone who is even trying to raise a kid or kids by themselves is a successful single mother. I know single dads have it rough, too, but they get more credit for trying. Nuclear families know how hard it is to raise kids with two parents; they should bow down to anyone who can do it with one parent. And that doesn’t mean do it the way right-winger cavemen and women think it should be done, but to do it at all is a major accomplishment. Let’s have a round of applause for all the single mothers.